Wildlife groups have condemned a decision by regulators in Florida to allow the hunting of black bears for the first time in a decade, and to permit \u201cbarbaric\u201d practices including the use of bait traps, archery and dog packs.<\/p>\n
The unanimous vote by the Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC) on Wednesday to approve a limited hunting season in December followed a presentation from staff insisting that a rising bear population and increasing encounters with humans warranted a reduction in numbers.<\/p>\n
In May, officials investigated what was believed to be the first fatal mauling of a person by a black bear in the state.<\/p>\n
But many protesters who spoke at the FWC meeting in Havana said the decision turned back the clock on decades of recovery of the once endangered species.<\/p>\n
They criticized the hunt as \u201clegalized animal cruelty\u201d, and said commissioners were using flawed science to justify its approval, including estimates of bear numbers instead of a formal census that will not be complete for another five years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis ill-conceived bear hunt will endanger an already threatened animal and open the door to destruction of critical wilderness habitat throughout Florida,\u201d Susannah Randolph, chapter director of the Sierra Club, told the panel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs our future one of pictures of trophy hunters standing over dead animals in vast concrete parking lots? [Florida governor] Ron DeSantis could stop this hunt right now and leave an enduring legacy for our children and grandchildren.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 160 members of the public spoke at the highly charged meeting that in effect rubber-stamped rules approved provisionally by commissioners in May. FWC will issue permits for the cull of 187 bears, almost 5% of Florida\u2019s estimated total of 4,000, over a 23-day hunt starting 6 December in four subpopulations where numbers are considered to be healthy.<\/p>\n
Several speakers said methods of hunting that will be permitted \u2013 including bows and arrows, luring bears with food traps, and setting trained dogs on their prey beginning in 2027 \u2013 belied the state\u2019s assertion that it was a conservation measure.<\/p>\n
The use of hounds is allowed in only 17 of the 32 states that permit bear hunting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just slaughter and torture,\u201d said Adam Sugalski, founder of the wildlife advocacy group Bear Defenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsing dogs is legalized animal cruelty. The dogs will be phased in over the next few years after they\u2019re trained, meaning in the off-season you can just run your dogs to the woods and chase bears just for fun, and kill them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others pointed to the 2015 debacle of Florida\u2019s most recent hunt, which was halted prematurely when 300 bears were killed inside 48 hours, and hunters, including an FWC commissioner who had voted to approve it, were accused of illegally killing pregnant bears, new mothers and cubs.<\/p>\n
Steve Meyers, an attorney who worked on a lawsuit to try to prevent that hunt, noted on Wednesday that all seven current FWC commissioners were appointed or reconfirmed by DeSantis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe imagery of a Ron DeSantis bear hunt is not going to be a harvest, it\u2019s going to be the lifeless bodies of black bears hanging upside down with blood pouring out of their mouths,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe media doesn\u2019t need pictures from this hunt. The ones from the last hunt will be just fine. Ron DeSantis\u2019s face will be wedded to that imagery.\u201d<\/p>\n
George Warthen, the FWC\u2019s director of hunting and game management, conceded that the public response to the May vote was \u201csignificant and divided\u201d, and appeared to suggest the hunt was more of a pre-emptive move than a response to any existing problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cA highly regulated hunt would prevent negative future impacts of overpopulation,\u201d he said. \u201cHunting at feeding stations and with dogs would provide hunters with the opportunity to selectively harvest larger male bears and avoid harvesting females, or females with young bears.\u201d<\/p>\n
The decision is the latest in a series of developments wildlife advocates see as detrimental to a slowly recovering black bear population that was as low as a few hundred in the 1970s. They include DeSantis signing into law last year a measure allowing residents to kill without fear of repercussion any bear perceived to pose a threat to their families, pets or property.<\/p>\n
Conservationists have attempted to raise awareness of the challenges facing black bears in Florida, most notably deaths from vehicle strikes, and loss of habitat through development.<\/p>\n
Carlton Ward Jr, an environmentalist who helped found the Florida Wildlife Corridor in 2010 to allow the free movement of vulnerable animals, said black bears were still fragmented in Florida across seven subpopulations, some of which had not recovered as well as others.<\/p>\n
Ward and director KT Bryden\u2019s documentary Florida Bear Tracks, produced by his nature storytelling company Wildpath for the National Geographic Society, chronicles the habitat issues by following an all-female team of FWC workers trapping and tagging bears in south Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate all the public attention Florida black bears are getting and will be getting around this controversial bear hunt, and we also recognize that the bigger story of who Florida black bears are, and where they live, is likely to be left out of this conversation,\u201d Ward said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBears are not thriving everywhere they need to be. We actually need more bears in Florida, in more places, to have the stated goal of a genetically connected statewide bear population.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bryden said that healthy black bear populations in some of the habitats are not an indication that the species has recovered in the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s only around 4,000 bears in the state, and 23 million people. So bears are facing a lot of challenges with habitat loss and fragmentation. As Florida grows, we need to learn how to coexist with wildlife. It\u2019s not optional. It\u2019s essential,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n